Let us save our community…

Inwood is a hamlet in the Five Towns, in the Town of Hempstead, in Nassau County, New York State, which was settled way back in the 1600s. While the name of our community has changed several times (Northwest Point, Westville), and the demographics have shifted several times (Jamaica Bay fisherman in the early days), it has always been a quaint, mostly single-family residential area with a heavy commercial presence on the side bordering Far Rockaway, Queens, NYC. It is also bordered on the other end by North Lawrence, a similar neighborhood just outside the borders of the neighboring adjacent Villages of Cedarhurst and Lawrence, also within the Town of Hempstead, Nassau County, New York State.

Inwood is home to the famous Inwood Country Club, which hosted the 1921 PGA Championship, Inwood Park, and the Inwood Marina. It is a multiethnic, multicultural, and diverse area which was known as being community oriented, clean, welcoming, and inviting. As residents, friends, neighbors, and political representatives- we are very proud of our hamlet!

For those familiar with the area, it is obvious that the character of the neighborhood has changed drastically over the last few years. What used to be a community of young vibrant families and old timers living the best years of their lives, has become an uncomfortable area to live. Once a thriving neighborhood of houses being modernized and maintained, has turned into a neighborhood with dilapidated and neglected investment houses scattered throughout. We have witnessed quality-of-life issues and the downright terrifying results have included an increase of crime, illegal businesses running out of homes with commercial vehicles parked on residential streets, drunken people on front lawns, endless piles of garbage, trespassing, abandoned vehicles on local property, and loud music at all hours; and this is all happening on private, as well as on County/Town property. We have witnessed single family houses and warehouses with rotating doors of dozens of people sleeping on mattresses on the floors. There is bullying in the parks, indecent exposure incidents, street fights, and even threats with weapons. Something has to change!

We call upon our elected representatives to maintain law and order and bring our neighborhoods back to where they should be. Inwood and North Lawrence have been neglected for way too long, and the residents have had enough!

We call on you to:

- Rebuild the former NCPD booth at the intersection of Bayview Avenue and Doughty Boulevard that was destroyed years ago in a traffic accident.

- Clean up the disastrous conditions and lack of enforcement at the Inwood LIRR train station; where non-working individuals and day laborers have placed dilapidated furniture to sit and drink alcohol all day while rats run rampant and feast on the garbage scattered everywhere.

- Increase NCPD patrols day and night to deter and catch crime.

- Rescind the approved "Transit Oriented Zoning", which has set off a gold rush of potential multi family housing which cannot be supported by existing infrastructure, and will irrevocably destroy the character of our neighborhoods.

- Enforce existing zoning laws, building code, fire code, health code, sanitation code, and any other legal requirements or restrictions so that the local houses and commercial properties are not used dangerously and illegally.

We call upon our elected officials and law enforcement NOW to stop turning a blind eye to our neighborhoods and enforce the law!